While most cyclones tend to impact Northern Queensland, South East Queensland is not exempt from them. Cyclone season is November through April. If you live in South East Queensland, Brisbane and the surrounding areas, you would be wise to be prepared well before the season arrives.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important things you can do to be ready for the cyclone season:
- Know where the nearest evacuation centres are. Should you be asked to evacuate your home, being familiar with the location and best routes to an evacuation centre will help keep you calm in an emergency.
- Before cyclone season, make sure the land around your home if free from materials that can be picked up and blown away during high winds. Debris, such as branches, metal scraps, small boats, and even children’s toys, has the potential to cause damage to your home or harm to someone nearby.
- Prior to the season, take steps to ensure that your home is built to cyclone standards. If you have any concerns, it’s best to make the necessary repairs well before the season arrives.
- In the event of a cyclone warning, you will want to board up your windows. Be sure you always have the materials needed on hand.
- Have emergency supplies on hand and in a central location in your home. You may want to put a kit together containing:
- Torches
- Batteries
- Radio
- Lamp and fuel
- Matches
- First aid supplies
- Canned foods
- Portable camping stove and cooking supplies
- Bottled drinking water
- Blankets
- Dead and dying trees should be removed from your property prior to cyclone season. Those that are weak are not likely to be able to withstand the storms.
- Store items in waterproof bags when possible.
- It’s a good idea to keep full tanks of petrol in your vehicles when there’s a threat of bad storms in the area.
- Make sure that everyone in your household knows the safest place to be in the event of a cyclone. If you aren’t evacuated, you will need to be in the strongest part of your house.
- Teach everyone in the family how to turn off the gas, power and water. Everything should be turned off before evacuating, and in some cases, when staying home to ride out the storm.
- Keep the trees on your property trimmed and free from potentially dangerous branches. Parts of a tree that could easily fall on your home should be trimmed or removed.
If you don’t have the time or the equipment to attend to tree pruning, hire the Brisbane Tree Lopping experts at Brisbane Tree Worx. Whether you need to clear your land, grind stumps or remove dead branches, we can help. We serve the entire South East Queensland area. If you ever need a qualified arborist in Brisbane call us on 0400 249 099 or visit us online for more information.
